THE world’s largest cruise company, Southampton-based Carnival, has announced profits of $2.1 billion (£1.4 billion) for 2015.

The results announced from the giant corporation’s head offices in Miami are half a billion dollars up on 2014.

Carnival’s president and chief executive Arnold Donald commented: “We nearly doubled our fourth quarter results and ended the year with 40 percent higher earnings.”

Increased ticket prices and falling fuel costs were two of the main factors in the jump in revenue for the cruise company’s whose UK head office is in Southampton.

Fuel prices declined 46 percent to $316 per metric tonne for the fourth quarter of 2015 from $584 per in the same period last year.

During 2015 Carnival has opened Amber Cove, a new cruise facility on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, and launched two new ships for P&O Cruises (Australia) - Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden.

Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise company in the world, with 10 brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia - Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK).

Together, these brands operate 99 ships totaling 216,000 berths with 18 new vessels scheduled to be delivered between 2016 and 2022.

The biggest area of expansion for the company is in China.

In October it was announced Carnival Cruise Line and AIDA Cruises would each enter the China market in 2017.

There is already a combined fleet of six ships from the Costa Cruises and Princess Cruises brands scheduled to operate in China in 2016.

Princess Cruises will introduce the Majestic Princess to the Chinese market in 2017. That ship is currently under construction and will be the first vessel built specifically for Chinese passengers.

Carnival Corporation also recently announced a joint venture with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation and the China Investment Corporation aimed at developing the cruise industry in China including the launch of the first domestic cruise brand in the Chinese market